Category: Writing

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#blogjune Blogging challenges Reading Review Writing

#BlogJune Day 29

So I finished the trilogy I started on Monday: the Nevernight Chronicles by Jay Kristoff.

I’m thinking that he’s fast becoming one of my favourite authors. His writing style is as readable as Lynette Noni’s Akarnae and as witty as Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid. But his descriptions are all his own… and they are sublime! His similes, in particular, are so cleverly crafted to fit perfectly within the exact time and place of the plot. Simply stunning writing.

It’ll be a hard act to follow these, I think.

Stay tuned though, dear Reader, as I may yet be surprised…

Have a wonderful day 🙂

KRidwyn

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#blogjune Review Writing

#BlogJune Day 24

This morning sees me train-bound, heading for Brisbane. New beginning for a new week; it seems apt that, with an hour long journey ahead with nothing to do but sit, I reward myself and download a novel I’ve been wanting to read for a while. Jay Kristoff’s NEVERNIGHT, the first in his trilogy of the same name.

So I downloaded, and then I opened it and started reading… and then stopped after the very first sentence.

Why? you may ask.

Because it’s brilliant! say I. And such an arresting beginning must be shared! (And, speaking from experience, I must act on this now before the novel swallows me and I don’t emerge for a lengthy period of time) so… here it is! Enjoy 🙂

Have an un-soiling-yourself week too, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

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#blogjune random scribblings Scribblings Writing

Argh! Missed another! #BlogJune Day 16

And there’s actually no ‘good’ reason for missing yesterday’s, either! In fact, I was part-way through writing it, yesterday morning, but got distracted. And never came back, obviously 🙁

Oh well. I’m going to choose to be kind to myself rather than ‘beating myself up’ about it. There’s always today.

So here’s what I was thinking I’d share with you for today’s post: a haiku I made up this morning while feeding Kiya her breakfast. Poem inspired by a conversation with my Miss19, after whose words I’m choosing to title it. And a disclaimer: this is BAD haiku. As in… you’ll probably hate it. Sorry in advance if you do! But I find it highly amusing. So here goes:

Brain rot (?)

YouTube, TikTok meme

Sigma Meals: Skibidi Sliders!

I am the Rizz Lord.

 

So… whatcha think? Bad haiku, hey. I mean, who’s ever heard of an 8-syllable middle line?! Really!

Okay. I’ll show myself out. See you tomorrow, folks! (Hopefully!)

– KRidwyn

 

 

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#blogjune Blogging challenges momentous events Random thoughts Writing

BlogJune #1

Better late than never, amiright? Truth be told, it wasn’t until the early hours of June 2 that I decided I was going to do the #blogJune challenge again this year. And 2024’s theme? Daily photo.

So apologies for being several hours late, but here was June the first’s:

Hope your day was similarly festive, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Random thoughts Reading Writing

2/52 Home again and being introspective

I both love and loathe writing. Like the nursery-rhyme girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead: when [it] is good, it is very, very good; but when [it] is bad, it is horrid.

I was pretty excited last March though, to be so near the end of my Justine Browning journey I was ‘querying’ agents, and ‘in the trenches’. Then a hiccup regarding word counts hit – at the same time as I received a huge pile of English drafts to read and return to my high-school English classes. Enter my first overwhelming encounter with my darlings’ use of ChatGPT, and the world of AI writing.

And I lost it. All motivation. All hope of ever ‘making it’ as a published author. Because seriously, what even will the publishing industry LOOK like in ten years, with AI now here, and here to stay?

Admittedly, life also got a heap busier with my Mum deciding to separate from my Dad, but there you have it – the series of inciting incidents which brought my 2023 writing journey to a screaming halt.

But this year, I’m determined to look on the bright side. Intentionally. And I couldn’t help but laugh when “Goodwill Librarian” posted this, this week:

 

And that was all it took to shake me from my self-imposed writing paralysis. Because I could see clearly how words are important! I should know – these past school holidays I’ve read more books than I’ve read in simply AGES! Other people’s words – their viewpoint on this incredible thing we call life – has been important to me. And who’s to say that my words might indeed be important to others?

Hence this return to my poor neglected blog. To eke out some words and fling them into the ether, with nought but the hope that someone, someday, may stumble across them and read. Maybe even comment!

And even if none do, the externalisation of my thoughts into text is good for me. Straighten out my own understanding of my personal world view, as it were. And ‘there’s a spider in your bra’ is certainly so disparate a response to ‘undress me with your words’ to what I could ever conceive, that it’s good for me to realise and understand this!

I hope you smiled like I did at that meme. And have a great week, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Blogging challenges family anecdotes Writing

1/52 Memories, from Melbourne, with hope

And so it begins; my first blogpost of the New Year. And I’m in Melbourne, which apparently used to be called Batmania prior to being renamed back in 1837.

(And no, although it’s amusing to think of a black-winged crime fighter controlling the convicts in this area of Down Under, apparently it was named after John Batman, a leading member of the Port Philip Association and the person who negotiated a treaty with the Aboriginal elders to purchase 600,000 acres… so nothing to do with DC Comics, Inc.)

But discovering this fact the other day got me thinking about the past, and how so much of history gets forgotten, both intentionally and accidentally.

I met a lovely lady last night – my cousin’s mother-in-law. It was her 76th birthday party and our conversation had moved onto the topic of tattoos. I related the story of one of my family member’s, who’d faithfully kept a diary – until the day his girlfriend at the time found it, read it, and used it against him. Unsurprisingly, he’d decided to stop journaling, and ink his memorable events onto his skin instead. I’ve always wondered if this second method resulted in lost memories. And this saddens me.

2023 was one of those years which I’m glad has ended. And although I could blithely say “I could happily forget whole chunks of it” I know that, should I *actually* do so? Sure I’d be more free-from-pain than I am right now, but I’d also no longer be me. Our memories are what makes us who are we – and there’s lessons I learned through those painful 2023 experiences that I’m glad I won’t have to re-learn.

So here I am, starting 2024 more despondent than I can ever remember being, but intentionally trying to look for snatches of hope for a brighter year. (They *do* say when you’re down, the only way is up, right?) And hope, after all, is all we need, yes? Aren’t there a plethora of films out there whose entire premise is that hope is stronger than hate, or fear, loneliness or depression?

So that’s how I’m looking at 2024. One day at a time, one hour at a time. Trying to see the good, rather than focusing on the less-than-good of the recent past. Moving on, moving upwards. And recording it in words here on this blog, which I’m grateful to be able to do. Not everyone feels they have the luxury to record their thoughts in text, after all.

So. Here’s to a hope-full week ahead for us all, dear Reader, and I’ll see you next week 🙂
⁃ KRidwyn

PS Just cos I can: the doubledecker bus I rode from Tullarine airport to Melbourne CBD. The last time I rode on a doubledecker was in 1980 in London!

Categories
Christianity Writing

a Christmas thought…

Christmas

the time of gifts

of family gatherings

of special food and drink

of decorated rooms and trees with lights

of little children asking Santa Claus for gifts,

of songs like Jingle Bells in well-stocked stores, of much excitement as children unpack

the full stockings they had hung up empty in hope on Christmas Eve now finding many small delights within

a whistle, cracker, orange, chocolate, or balloon before they find their gifts under the tree,

tear off the coloured paper wrap with hasty glee and happily try out the new toys they received.

 

What is the reason for our Christmas season? Why do we have a special holiday?

Why focus on spending time with family?

And why give presents and send cards to friends?

 

Do we even give such things a thought,

as we celebrate together and keep to our traditions, having parties and a massive Christmas feast?

 

Does the season bring to mind what happened when Christmas was inaugurated

some two thousand years ago?

And do we realise that the birth of Jesus is so important in human history

that we divide our time into BC and AD?

 

How unique is Jesus Christ?

Has any other man at birth

had angels in their thousands herald him in song?

Or had a special star that wise men saw which spurred them on to travel from afar

to come and worship him and bring their costly gifts fit for a king?

How could this child of poor parentage be such a threat to Herod who was king, that God told Joseph they must flee,

escape to Egypt, where Jesus was for years a refugee?

 

Did Gabriel indeed appear to Mary to announce

that, though she was a virgin, yet by God’s power upon her, she would conceive?

Did she really hear him say that the son that she would bear would be very great, and be called the Son of God,

who would reign on David’s throne forever

over an everlasting kingdom as the Prince of Peace?

 

What is the reason for our Christmas season?

Why celebrate with family, and why so many gifts?

Could it be that our holiday reflects that holy day when God gave in love to all men everywhere

the very greatest present of all time, a gift that they may choose

to receive or to refuse, His son, our Saviour,

Jesus.

*********

poem courtesy Jeanette Grimmer, December 2023

 

Categories
my novel-in-progress Writing

Stumbling…

So my querying journey ran headlong into a wall the other week. I’d been sending out query letters and the first several pages of my story for a fortnight or so, happily exploring QueryTracker and garnering rejections but expecting these as par for the course… when I stumbled across an agency website page which stated word count expectations for a variety of genres.

Blow me down but they were wanting between 35K – 80K for Middle Grade. The piece I’d poured my blood, sweat and tears into, barely tipped the scales at 27K.

Heart attack! What if the rejections I’d been getting weren’t because the agents didn’t feel like they liked my story enough… but instead were rejections out of hand due to my paltry word count? Had any of them even read my pages? Was I counting myself out of the running; doing myself and my story a disservice because the word count wasn’t hefty enough?

So I withdrew all active queries, and thought. And thought, and thought some more.

You see, I’d originally intended the story I was querying to be but the first in a 7-part series. And yes, even though I *know* it’s not wise, I’d gone blithely ahead and drafted the majority of all seven stories. And all of them were in the 27K – 33K range.

It had occurred to me within seconds of reading that page, that I could be staring down the barrel of seven rejections, based simply on word count!

After a period of grieving at the thought of my story never reaching an audience, I realised a mental re-adjustment was in order. Then it hit me.

Why did it have to be a 7-part series? What if it were a trilogy instead?

As in, Books 1, 2 and 3 becomes ‘Book 1’.

Books 4 and 5 become the sequel.

Books 6 and 7 then finish the arc as the ultimate title in the series.

Huh! Word count target achieved! So now I’m editing what *was* Book 2, which I’m hoping will become Part 2 in my newly enlarged novel.

 

Let’s see what happens when it’s done, huh? And now I’d best go: I’ve QUITE a lot of editing and polishing to do!

 

See you next month, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
my novel-in-progress Writing

Almost there…

Well, this month was D-month! (Is that even a thing? And if not, why not? And can I make it a thing? And who even came up with the ‘D’ for ‘D-day’ anyway? And I’m really showing how much of an ignoramus I am right now, aren’t I?!)

And back to the story: my plan was to start querying my Middle Grade novel by the middle of March. Am I on track to still make that deadline? Well, yes… but it’s a long drawn out ‘yes’ so everyone knows there’s a caveat attached!

So here’s why. Amongst my drama group preparing for our performances next week and Miss 18 finishing her 100 hours on her learners and then getting her license (YAY!!!)… my computer died! And yes, I’m one of those people who says ‘I’ll back up *next* week, which of course never arrives, meaning my last back up was before Christmas, and I have done SOOOOO much editing since then!!!

In fairness to the computer, it *was* ten years old, which I’m told is a very good age. My 13 inch MacBook Air, as light as a (okay, maybe a pelican’s or an albatross’) feather, and it had never had ANY problems… even after I accidentally dropped it hard enough to dent its corner a couple of years ago; and even though I’ve let it overheat once or thrice.

But the keyboard stopped. The trackpad, screen, everything else was fine. Just no keyboard – and external keyboards (both wired and wireless) also didn’t work.

Hence: I now have a new MacBook Air. And the IT guru was able to restore my old computer using a P-RAM reset (which he did for free) so I was able to save, back up and then transfer my book baby (and all her siblings!) to my new computer. No edits lost!!!

But Scrivener had apparently undergone a new version in the years I’d been writing, so I had to buy the new version. And then my baby (and her siblings) needed updating to the new version, and I need to relearn how to do stuff on this new Scrivener which I already knew how to do on the old version, so… sigh. It’s been a bit of a set-back.

But I’m determined to send my first query letters on the 16th, so I have 10 days left to get my baby ship-shape and looking her best.

Wish me luck, dear Reader! I’ll let you know how it goes come April!

⁃ KRidwyn

Categories
my novel-in-progress Reading Work Writing

Happy New Year!

Yes, I know, it’s been 7 days already. But hey; I’ve been having a good holiday, okay?

Speaking of holidays, it’s been more of a ‘hiatus’ from this blog, hasn’t it (insert sheepish expression here). What a lovely word that is too, by the way. According to my Apple dictionary:

Hiatus, as in a ‘physical gap’, or ‘to gape’. Well, there certainly is a gaping hole in the timeline of posts on this blog! But as much as I’d like there not to be, I can’t change the past, so here’s hoping 2023 fares better for blogposts. Once a month even, perhaps?

Looking ahead, I’m also looking forward to querying again, probably around mid-March. It’s been years since dipping my toes in the querying waters, so I’m apprehensive. Well… downright terrified, truth be told. But now I’ve posted this – even if only on a sporadic blog such as this! – my brain is telling me it’s a commitment I’ll be unwilling to break. I hope…

On the reading front, I’ve challenged myself to anther 104 books this year. I absolutely LOVE that Goodreads has their ‘Reading Challenge’ function, where I can track my reading year by year. I recorded just over 110 in 2022, which I was pretty happy with. In 2023, I’m planning on the majority of those being YA, followed by MG and a smattering of adult and also non-fiction in there. Not only because those are my faves, in order, but also that’s where I’m at with the Library collection I’m trying to forge my way through at work. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned how BRILLIANT my job is, yes? Teacher Librarian for a K – 12 private school, where I get to spend the school’s money on books I know the kids will love? What can be better than that? (Well, writing full time perhaps, but that’s a scary thought right there…)

Anyway, here’s hoping all this reading I’ll be doing will help the writing some. And between the writing, the reading and the job, plus a newly-graduated daughter to help negotiate the big wide world of work and university, and two younger children completing Year 11 and Year 9 in 2023… this year’s ending will probably come around quicker than even I’m expecting! I wonder what my life will look like by then?

Well, that’s it from me, dear Reader. Have a great January and “see” you in a month!

– KRidwyn